Greedy Goblin

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Oh the juicy tears!

One day before the kickstarter for the Goon propaganda book went up, I offered a chance to The Mittani to prove to all of us that he isn't the horrible person in the wizzard hat anymore. It was a crucial moment, since I already had surprisingly large reddit and comment support, record high visitors for my posts reviving the story of his true colors.

I was purposefully modest in my demands. I didn't ask him to change any in-game behavior of his minions, or to reference me anywhere, just to stop his clan from harassing people who are only guilty in sucking in a video game bad enough to be ganked in highsec. Instead give them useful info, from his own damn ad-filled site. Of course he refused, because the tears of pubbies are too juicy. And he sent his minions to spew "mean-spirited hate" to me on reddit.

I ended my post with "If the first version of the page is not created this week and the ping doesn't go out to end the decade of farming human sadness and anger by Goons, I'm sure that every decent EVE player will agree: Incidentally, if you want to make the guy lose his EVE-business, his name is The Mittani. It's T-H-E M-I-T-T-A-N-I. He has his own coalition. Find him!" Oh boy, every decent EVE player agreed. Not because I told them, but because it was the truth. It wasn't my idea, I merely stated the obvious: before The Mittani could stand front of us as an ambassador for whole EVE, he must do a symbolic and large act to clean himself of his former wrongdoing.

The community roared against the wretched propaganda book as one. I don't know how many of them did because of me, but if there was only one, I'm proud. There was much more, considering the visitor counts. It was beautiful to see that despite most "content creators" bent a knee and supported the damn thing, people were practically consensual about rejecting this crap. The kickstarter pledges weren't even near the goal.

I expected Goons to just stop talking about it and let it be forgotten. But then I saw this and couldn't resist the guilty pleasure of the very sin I campaigned against:

I know, I'm weak. Sion talked exactly like the highsec miner who just lost his Mackinaw, calling the players who bested him "that toxic EVE community". Just like the miner, he told that because of meanies like us, the game will die. "CCP loses its ability to ever secure another author to write player stories.", "That's a truly enlightened way to win new people over and bring them into the game." "there is something seriously wrong with you.". Read the whole post, it's better than a minerbumping grab bag. It would be perfect if Sion would mine in Gamis, on stream and share his feelings after experiencing game content created by players in CODE!

But then I realized: The Mittani, Sion and the rest of the "stockholders" are in deep trouble. They didn't just lie to us. They lied to CCP and lied to Jeff Edwards. They made everyone believe that they are so powerful in-game that they can command the players to give money to a CCP-Jeff book. They can secure so high salary to Jeff that it'll worth his time to quit his day job at DoD and dedicate a year to a video game book. They can make something happen that even CCP cannot. Jeff and Seagull both put their reputation on the line just for a word from The Mittani. Anyone within EVE would know better, but they aren't from within EVE. (For Jeff, it's understandable).

What Sion writes is true, just not about the EVE community, but The Mittani Media. "The way our community collectively treats him as an author and as a person reflects upon all of us at TMC. Regardless of whether this Kickstarter succeeds or not, Jeff’s impression of us as a media company matters and will persist." Here, I fixed it for you. They can't just say "welp, better luck next time", because Jeff can get the word out "Alex is a leper, if you deal with him, 100K nerds will hate you". CCP will think "the Mittani is no longer relevant, let's cater to the opinion leaders who actually matter". (I've given up hope that they'll ever learn to be neutral.) The Mittani Media must save the book and they can't. With nothing in their hands, they do as ganked miners, issue empty threats and tears in blind hope that someone gets scared or pity them enough to pay. The leak of Endie "the electronic copies sold above that would be almost pure profit for TMC Media" proved that I've already told, they are nothing but a leech in the book project which had much better chances with Jeff+CCP only.

What can I say? Perfect karma! Goons are providing tears over their loss which they suffered because they wanted tears. EVE is real!

But something in his tear-filled nonsense must be addressed seriously: "And you know what else? Mittani will still be here, with the thousands of swarm brethren and the black ships of the Imperial Armada at his back. Your impotent /r/eve badposts won't save you from the wrath of our guns any more this time around than it did any of the others." This is the truth. No amount of blogposts and /r/eve upvotes will defeat them. While I'm writing this, I run 9 accounts in the background, running mining missions so I can keep giving 13B/week to Mordus Angels so they can keep killing Goons. (I can't trade and write at the same time, that needs full attention). Have you blown up a Goon ship today? Have you donated to someone who did? Or just upvoted, posted, laughed and felt good about yourself? Because that is why this arrogant, toxic bunch of bullies are still around. Want to be part of it the big EVE story of 2016? Don't wait for your CEO, don't wait for someone else to lead! Roam there today, solo or with a few guys or simply rat an hour and donate the proceeds to MoA!

Optimally, that change will just come naturally from internal decay and line members realizing the organization they joined no longer exists and what they are part of now is a shadow of former self. The reputation they have now is not the reputation they once had.

On amother note, I doubt your funded war will do it. I suspect that might provide more reasons for goons to unify rather than decay, disolve and disband.

The best ammunition out there that you have against them isnt a mining laser to fund a blaster. Its your pen. Keep up the battle to bring enlighten to Mittani's minions and the Inferium (heard it referred to as that) will fail. To other alliances .. be there to take in an absorb ex goon member without prejudice. They didn't change. Their corporate management changed and in this game they really can't vote them out. There only way out is if the rest of th em welcome back to Eve and out of Mittani's purse.

@Anonymous: absolutely not. Most Goons just ignore everything not told by Mittani-Father. The only way to reach them is where they can't hide: the client. Of course you can link propaganda in local, but if you are just shouting on your soapbox, they'll ignore you. The reason they can't ignore me is that I fund MoA that killed their ship.

Sion's article pointed out that Goons are used to the hate of the EVE Player base. His concern or so he claims is that the toxicity normally fit for Goons fell upon someone undeserving. That at the end of a day an author taking a risk, on a video game property of all things, found himself facing the ugly side of EVE. Not Goons ganking newbs, not TEST members selling the TESTOGRAM. But a bunch of people that claim to be better than the enemy they face, but failed to leave the in game hate in game and took it out on someone who took interest in writing the story.

Maybe The Mittani and company deserve their reputation, but I fail to see the link between what they do in game and the steaming pile dumped in the lap of a guy asked to take a risk to write a book.

The elephant in the room is how can it be okay for those who feel wronged by Goons to sink to their level? How can it be justifiable to engage of in a set line of conduct you decry as wrong, and then claim to take the moral high ground because you don't do what Goons do. I don't mean you as in Gevlon, but in the sense of very person that has gone beyond fair criticism but the kind of rabid diatribe only found on FOX News.

I'm not saying opposition to the project is wrong, and the concerns are certainly well founded. I just question the way everyone decided to approach this. Not as a concerned community but a lynch mob.

Why couldn't people have taken the high road, why couldn't they have practiced what they preached about good behavior and civility?

Believe me I feel very silly asking all this because I see the delight you have taken in the recent turn of events, but maybe you could take a step back and from a dispassionate point of view make an argument that rises above the hypocrisy.

Failing all that are you having Pumpkin or Apple Pie for Thanksgiving?

On the other hand he partnered with The Mittani, despite his reputation is obvious, even out of game. Googling his name and reading the first 100 hits (about 2 hours of his life) could inform Jeff of all of this. - If he didn't care, then he deserved all the attacks- If he didn't do his homework, than he is paying for it. Maybe disproportionately, but still. Also, I don't understand why he didn't quit this deal already, I'm sure his contract has a moral clause, so he could quit as soon as he learned about Fanfest.

"I've thought of a great way to scrape a tiny percentage of money from a bestselling author's fees after CCP’s royalties."

What tiny percentage is he talking about? I mean a book which would have brought many new players for EVE would have hold a book in their hands with The Mittani logo all over it. Their first website would have been TMC, buying PLEX and reading ads and propaganda.

I'm only a physicist, not a business expert, but I would not call that a TINY percentage.

I had TMC in my EVE bookmark folder. I would only wander there if I was bored, or when someone I actually follow linked an article in it. When I read Sion's piece I deleted the bookmark. Attacking Rixx Javix was disgusting. In fact, the whole article was disgusting.

I would be so glad for a Call To Arms from all of the nullsec alliances to invade Goons. Just burn their sov and then leave it for anyone who cares to take it. We are fighting in Fountain with each other, when next door Goons are fighting in Cloud Ring. I would love to blue our enemies and hunt goons together. Joining MoA wont work for many of the nullsec players, as they love their own community more than they hate The Mittani. You should encourage nullsec players more to fight goons and not just to join MoA, because most of us wont leave our community.

I've no sympathy for Goons or The Mittani due to their attitude to the game and its players, but this book would be great for EVE as a whole, so I can't relate to the feelings of those who want to see it fail.

I just like to look at the bigger picture of EVE among other MMORPGs/online games and what EVE could do to maintain its special place. Such book would be a great thing to have for promoting the game, or even just have one of its conflicts immortalised in historical account. For me that's much, much more important than personal wrangling, power games, etc.

From the extracts of the book I read I don't even think Jeff Edwards is the right author for such book, but I'm sure many others would enjoy it. I love this game, and having its history transformed into a physical form that will remain as a memory of people's interactions in the virtual sci-fi universe is something I'd definitely like to see happen.

I don't think goons can "command" or force anybody to support the Kickstarter. If they force or black mail somebody in game, they would utilize in game power to receive financial benefits out of game and effectively commit a form of RMT. What they try to do is to abuse and to exploit the community spirit that is spread since some time now by a certain part of the player base.

"Optimally, that change will just come naturally from internal decay and line members realizing the organization they joined no longer exists and what they are part of now is a shadow of former self. The reputation they have now is not the reputation they once had."+1, especially, their members are getting bored.

PS : In the same time, in Cloud Ring, Goons "purge" is on a good way : http://isilhin.free.fr/illustrations/eve/IrreductiblesV2-eng.jpg and http://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/251584tmp.png

"PS : In the same time, in Cloud Ring, Goons "purge" is on a good way : http://isilhin.free.fr/illustrations/eve/IrreductiblesV2-eng.jpg and http://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/251584tmp.png"Ryanis, are you aware that BRAVE have made a deal with goons to keep that system and take over the surrounding ones? Seriously, check it out.

"On the other hand he partnered with The Mittani, despite his reputation is obvious, even out of game. "

His reputation for getting one on one interviews with lead devs of various game companies?

His reputation from the various out of game interviews he has given over the years?

His reputation for being in charge of ebil goons, and therefore literally Hitler?

His reputation for being a total ass when drunk?

"This project has already attracted the support of several gaming industry leaders and noted authors including J. Todd Coleman of Crowfall, John Smedley, past President of Sony Online Entertainment, Scott Hartsman, CEO of Trion Worlds and New York Times Bestselling author Pierce Brown."

Yes, they are obviously unaware of his reputation, because they clearly are people who are unaware of who they associate with.

Perhaps you should write an email to them individually to make sure they are aware precisely who they choose to mix with. I am sure they would appreciate it, as Alex has obviously hidden it from them.

@Anon: they might or might not know, but none of them had a reason to care as none of them partnered with Alex. Would I have a problem hanging out in the lounge of "The Mittani of World of Tanks"? No, because I can't care less about WoT. If he'd offer me an hourly paid job on my field, would I care? Only about his reputation of paying his other employees.

But if I'm about to give up my day job to go on a business venture with him based on crowdfunding? You can be sure as hell that I spend days reading up on him.

By the way thank you for not reading the original article. It's exactly about how the carefully built casual network of the Mittani is at jeopardy because Jeff will be very angry/disappointed in him due to being dragged into this shit.

Nice read Gevlon and spot on me thinks. Random thought, Eve News24 are showing a lot of self control by not piling on TMC. I can remember when the Mittiani (yes the actual player) would go after them with a vengeance. I bet deep down inside EN24 are laughing the arsss off.

The _very_ simple truth is that even Goons, an alliance with 16,000 pilots, hasn't backed this.

They currently have just over 700 backers so even if everyone outside Goons were influenced by the Grr Goons the vast majority of GSF members don't give a fuck about this book.

The failure to hit their kickstarter goals has everything to do with the market not liking it and nothing to do with 'grr goons' on reddit.

Sion is spinning this now because he wants to create a 'them vs us' narrative so when they relaunch the book all his 'people' sign up. Sadly for them this has clearly exposed that Mittens and his chums see pilots not as fellow Eve players but cash cows ripe for the milking.

Most of "the goons" aren't really "Goons", just random EVE players happening to find their way to GSF or larger Imperium and they aren't immune to the "wider EVE community". Of course the leadership has much better chance to control them, but they've given up this by preferring TMC over CFC (and renaming the latter for the former).

More importantly, the Book was marketed to the wide community from the start. If they wanted Goons to pledge, they wouldn't bother getting Grath, Seagull and various non-EVE guys to publicly support it. They never once claimed "support this book and pubbies will cry", so even loyal Goons could consider it "some CCP deal nothing about us". Funnily they can be sitting between two chairs: - Goons didn't pledge for a neutral book- Non-Goons didn't pledge for a Goon book

"I doubt so, as we fought for them and a few ones went to SMA (for now).

Also, that would be a radical chnage of position : remember the "we will burn Cloud Ring" ?(and, seriously, what could Brave offer ?)"A couple went to SMA holding, but that doesn't mean that's how the CFC plan to leave them.

There is no change of position, as we all know that goons have publicly stated their intentions, to force renting on other null groups. They will continuously attack people who refuse to pay them a tribute.

From what I've heard, BRAVE have agreed to pay something, and that's supported by the fact that the new BRAVE systems were handed over so quickly and are not being reinforced.

Hey Gevlon, I think you should use that photo in a better way (the http://tinyurl.com/qjc7kkh one)Like that "Kill a titan, say "Gevlon send his regards", recive moneeeyy" thing but with the url xD that would be awesome :DLike, kill a goon (carrier or something shinny), post the photo, recive (insert stuff here)That's gold man! That's gold!

All those who think that this book would be a good idea, shame on you. Go reading already existing propaganda pieces and check their content versus reality...

This failed KS project is the best source for goon tears and gewn pet tears...

So far, I have not seen any ad hominem attacks against Jeff Edwards and I agree with Gevlons point of view. One checks a business partner's background before committing to cooperation. If attacks then happen, so be it. That is just having to deal with the consequences...

Also, Inferium is not as goog as Band of Bookstarters... I do love that name... :)

It's so funny to finally hear this blow over. I expected tmc drama ever since I overheard Alex bragging to someone (I think shadoo from Pl, but I could be mistaken, it has been a while) during fanfest 2013 at the Celtic Cross on how he'd make his life on tmc now and gsf members financing it.